Surviving Two Attempts by an Italian Family to Unalive Me in One Day, A series of uncanny events leading to two crashes in one day.
It all began when I was a college student in Chicago, driving a car that was barely holding together. My car needed work, so I left it with a carburetor expert friend of my dad’s and borrowed my father’s second car for a 30-mile trip to my girlfriend’s family dinner in the suburbs. Barely two miles into the journey, while stopped at a red light, BAM! The sound of an explosion jolted me—I’d been rear-ended at about 35MPH. The force threw me into the backseat as my car was pushed into the one in front of me.
Hours later, after refusing medical care multiple times, I stood helpless as my dad’s Mustang was towed away, paperwork in hand. Determined to make it to dinner, I caught a ride, got my car, and drove the rest of the way. By the time dinner ended, my back was aching badly. As we headed to the hospital for x-rays, our car was struck by another vehicle that ran a red light. We crashed into a retaining wall, and once again, I was left watching another of my cars being towed away. This time, we completed the hospital visit in an ambulance.
As I filed two insurance claims that day, things took a strange turn. Both drivers who hit me had the same last name. They lived less than a mile apart, in the same town, and both owned Oldsmobile Cutlass Supremes. They turned out to be cousins from the same Italian family. Though the crashes happened miles apart, the connections were eerie. People find this story hard to believe, but the sheer oddness of that day has stayed with me.
